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Does a cashless society mean less crime?

Recently, researchers at the University of Missouri-St. Louis looked at what happened when Missouri switched from handing out welfare checks to depositing welfare on debit cards. Burglary, larceny and assault went down, they found. Robbery may have fallen, too, although there weren’t enough robberies in the sample to draw a firm conclusion.

So as we buy more stuff with keystrokes and plastic instead of cash, there may be evidence that our cash-light ways may be foiling crime.

To understand why, maybe we should think more like a crook.

You can swipe the purse of a well-dressed woman in downtown. You’ll get a couple of credit or debit cards and a little cash. The typical American carries just $15, according to a Tufts University survey.

The cash is nice, but the credit card is problematic. Credit cards don’t sell for much on the street, said criminologist Richard Wright of UM-St. Louis. Try to use a stolen card in a convenience store, and your picture will be on a video camera. Cards stop working when the victim reports the theft.

On the other hand, you could go to a poor neighborhood and lurk around at a check cashing shop when a hotel maid shows up with her paycheck. Snatch that purse and you’ll get no plastic, but more real money.

Cash is what the thief wants most. His drug dealer doesn’t take a credit card. So putting welfare on debit cards makes the recipient a less attractive target.

If digitizing and plasticizing money also lowers crime, that may bode well for the future. Folding money is slowly going out of fashion. Use of debit cards is soaring. “You can use a credit card to buy a Coke, and pay at the parking meter,” Wright noted.

Half a century ago, cash was used in 80 percent of all transactions. Now it’s closer to half, including quarters dropped in the soda machine.